There’s still plenty of work to do.Manning’s Boulders Inn & Suites, located west of the German Hausbarn Konferenz Centre, is buzzing as final touches are completed on the hotel in preparation for its Oct. 3 opening. The hotel’s construction started April 1.Beds are being put together, carpet laid — with a layer of concrete beneath some of it to help with soundproofing. Bathrooms are being put together. The lobby is being outfitted.That will be a particular point of pride, Main Street Manning Board President Ron Reischl said, as it will feature Templeton Rye-themed decor: a fireplace made from strips of whiskey barrel wood, barrel light fixtures, Templeton Rye furniture and more.The hotel, which will have 32 rooms, has offset doorways leading from the hallway to each one, rather than flat walls.“That’s a nice architectural feature,” Reischl said.An American With Disabilities Act-accessible room on the first floor includes a connecting door to the next room.Room prices range from about $100 to $175 or more. Rooms include standard king or two-queen-bed options, rooms with a king bed and a handicap-accessible tub or shower and several suites, including a honeymoon suite with a Jacuzzi.The road leading up to the hotel will lose its name of 311th Street and will be dubbed Heritage Drive, celebrating both the German Hausbarn and the Freedom Rock nearby.Organizers expect the hotel will be a popular site for wedding parties, given its proximity to both the German Hausbarn and Trinity Church, Reischl said. More than a dozen wedding parties already have booked rooms at the hotel next year.Updated landscaping outdoors will provide a scenic spot for wedding photos and include an outdoor patio.“I see this as a place where you can relax in the evening with a drink,” Reischl said.Eighteen west-central Iowa investors collectively have a $790,000 stake in the $2.25 million hotel. Boulders is an investor in Boulders Inn Manning LLC. Debt-financing through local lending institutions is expected to be part of the financing mix.“We’re excited about the partnership with the City of Manning,” Boulders co-owner Tim Stuart previously said. The Denison-based company, which opened its first hotel there in 2008, now has about a dozen hotels.

It's not much more than displaced dirt right now, but Manning’s new Trestle Park is approaching a reality with the completion of colorful designs that soon will move from paper to ground.Representatives from the Community Visioning Program recently presented mostly finalized designs and plans for a variety of projects that have been earmarked for potential completion in Manning in the coming months and years.The plans, which encompass five separate landscaping and beautification projects that could be implemented in and around Manning, came with an estimated $2.5 million price tag. However, Manning wouldn’t plan on forking over that much, said Ron Reischl, board president of Main Street Manning.“Even if we do all of these, we’ll do it for less,” he said.For one thing, the city’s relationship with colleges and universities will allow it to move forward with some of the proposed projects with the help of students looking for hands-on experience. To move forward with one of the proposed projects, Manning is working with Iowa State University College of Design students to help design four signs that would be situated along Highway 141 and would feature four of Manning’s main attractions — the water tower, the railroad trestle, the German Hausbarn and Trinity Church.The best-known project on the list is a trestle-themed park that will lie along Manning’s north side. Others include additional greenery and ornamentation along Main Street, a downtown “green space” at the juncture of Main Street and Highway 141 and a sign marking the entrance to Great Western Park.Plans for the trestle park have been in the works for some time after the need for a space catering to young adults was identified.“We already have a nice children’s park in Manning,” Reischl previously said. “We have none oriented to young adults, who are certainly the future of the community.”The plans for the park include a “natural play area” for children, incorporating elements such as a slide that, rather than having children climb steps, starts at the top of a hill. Nearby is open space for adults to play Frisbee and areas for sand volleyball, bags and barbecuing.Funds for the first phase, which includes those elements and more, have been raised, Reischl said. Because of a timeline attached to one of the grants benefiting the project, the park will be completed by the end of next year. Later additions could add space for campers, tents and other activities.The downtown green space designs include a movable corner stage and amphitheater with sound barriers, as well as landscaping to create an attractive entrance to the city’s downtown.“The big part of doing something at Highway 141 was to draw people’s attention to that corner — to say, ‘You’re at Main Street. You’re downtown. You’re at the heart of Manning,’” said Jen Cross, a landscape architect with RDG Planning & Design’s Omaha office, at a recent design meeting in Manning.The plans for Great Western Park are simpler — a sign marking the park’s entrance, for now, although efforts to make certain areas of the park more handicap-accessible could be incorporated as well, Reischl said.The final plans presented to the city through the Community Visioning program aren’t set in stone, he said — for instance, the plans for Main Street include adding trees along the sides of the road, while the city might first focus on grading tall curbs to make them more easily accessible.This is the second time Manning has undergone the Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program, created through a partnership between the Iowa Department of Transportation and Iowa State University Extension Landscape Architecture and Trees Forever. The program, offered to cities with a population of less than 10,000, requires cities chosen to participate to earmark $2,000 that will remain in the city and be used for one of the proposed projects. Trees Forever, landscape architects and other agencies then work with the city to develop and incorporate beautification, design and transportation improvement ideas.Manning first went through the program in 2012. Ideas proposed at the time included enhancing the area’s trail system and adding amenities along the trails, developing signage and logos for the city, enhancing Main Street with street trees, bike racks and flower baskets and incorporating landscaping themes and planting native species along Highway 141.Once Manning exhausted those ideas, incorporating many of them, the city returned to Community Visioning with a new slate of proposals and was accepted to once again undergo the planning and design program. These ideas are the result of the second collaboration. Manning is one of 10 Iowa communities participating in the program this year, and one of only a few that have done so twice.What cities do with the ideas developed through the Community Visioning program is up to them — it depends on their initiative and funding, said Brad Riphagen, field coordinator with Trees Forever, recently.“Whether the projects get going is a matter of finding dollars,” he said. “Manning has been very successful at finding the dollars.”

Last Thursday, Sept. 15, Manning City Manager, Dawn Rohe, was pleasantly surprised during the annual Iowa League of Cities Awards Banquet when she was named the winner of the Rhonda Wood Smith Award. Smith was a single parent, working as a municipal contractor and also serving as mayor of Garner when she succumbed to cancer in early 1997. Her outstanding reputation as a civic-minded community member led to the development of this ward to recognize the exemplary work of young city officials and those new to city government. Rohe, who prefers to remain out of the headlines and work behind the scene, has been instrumental in the phenomenal progress seen in the Manning community. During the presentation, she was commended for leading through bold innovation and commitment and was recognized for being a great role model to other city officials, “young and not-so-young” alike.

Carroll Daily Times Herald, Rebecca McKinsey:The Manning city administrator’s “bold innovation and commitment” were recognized with a statewide award lastmonth.Dawn Rohe is the most recent recipient of the Rhonda Wood Smith Award, presented by the Iowa League of Cities each year to a city government official who is young or new to the work.“This is a fun award to give out, because it truly is intended to recognize people early in their career who are taking initiative and doing good things,” said Alan Kemp, executive director with the Iowa League of Cities. “Dawn is really one of those individuals who from a very early age within her community has worked closely with elected officials — she’s very engaged, very visionary, very entrepreneurial — and has pursued these things with the council to really benefit the city, and I think it really shows.”Rohe, 33, has worked with the City of Manning since 2007, first as city clerk and then as city administrator since 2008. She graduated from Manning High School in 2001 and studied business and entrepreneurship at Buena Vista University.“Locally and regionally, Dawn is clearly recognized as a leader,” states her nomination, which was penned by Manning Mayor Harvey Dales and Main Street Manning Board President Ron Reischl. “She clearly holds the best interests of the Manning community in her heart. ... Her leadership, as a young adult, encourages others to do the same.”Rohe received the award at the Iowa League of Cities’ annual conference in Des Moines Sept. 15. She attended to speak about Manning’s downtown revitalization during a panel — a ruse to get her there for the surprise award that allowed her to contribute to the conference as well, Reischl said.“Dawn Rohe ... has shown bold innovation and commitment and is a great model to other city officials, young and not-so-young,” states her introduction at the award ceremony.“I was extremely surprised but grateful,” Rohe said. “Manning is successful because of great teamwork, and I’m very lucky to get to work with a lot of very talented and passionate people.”The award is named for Rhonda Wood Smith, a single mother who was mayor of Garner while also working as a municipal consultant, according to the Iowa League of Cities’ website.It seeks to “encourage and affirm participation in local government by young people who may make greater sacrifice for public service due to significant career and family commitments,” according to information from the Iowa League of Cities.Rohe’s nomination notes that she has been involved in major projects in Manning for years.She is spearheading an area trails project that she hopes to expand to a regional system, eventually linking Des Moines with Council Bluffs and Omaha, according to the nomination.She has successfully written grant applications for various city organizations and was integral in the city’s downtown revitalization, the nomination states. She is involved in a local committee to address the city’s housing shortage and was a member of a committee that ultimately brought Boulders Inn and Suites to Manning. She has been involved in a variety of other committees, organizations and projects that have led to major changes in Manning, as well as recognition and awards of various types for the city.“The award confirms on a state level what we knew at a local level, and that is that Dawn is a huge asset to the Manning community — not only in her skills, but in her dedication to the community,” Reischl said. “She’s had her finger on every project in Manning, and in many cases, she’s the lead person on the project.“We’re just thrilled for Dawn.”Previous area recipients of the award include Carroll Mayor Ed Smith in 2001, Carroll Mayor Adam Schweers in 2013 and Carroll City Clerk Laura Schaefer in 2014.

With all of the construction taking place on the new Boulders Inn Manning, the community put out a call last May for suggestions on renaming 311th Street that runs to the east and west as access to the new hotel and to the historical Hausbarn. Residents were asked to vote on three selected options, Heritage Drive, Heritage Parkway and Veterans Parkway. The overwhelming winner was Heritage Drive. Now that paving has been completed on a portion of the roadway, from the East Street entrance to a little past the Hausbarn entrance and parking area, the Hausbarn has made an official notification of their change of address to 130 Heritage Drive. Boulders Inn Manning is still under construction with an estimated opening in October of this year.Link to story and picture